Interior Design and Beyond : Art, Science, Industry

"For our profession to be as rewarding as it ought to be, we need to restructure all of our value systems and priorities. We have to do this with vision and with an accurate picture of the current reality." —Mary V. Knackstedt

Mary V. Knackstedt has been helping designers achieve business success through her popular books, seminars, and business consulting work. Now, in her most important and visionary work yet, she shares a clear-sighted look at the current state of the design industry and traces the powerful socioeconomic, cultural, and technological trends that are radically transforming the role of the interior designer.

In Interior Design and Beyond, Ms. Knackstedt provides a comprehensive framework and a set of powerful business tools to help design firms survive and thrive in today's business-driven globalized marketplace. She offers clear, easy-to-follow guidelines, tips, and strategies for everything from business process reengineering, organizational redesign, the learning process, and the use of information technology, to creating client/designer partnerships, tracking trends, promoting teamwork and cooperation, and much more.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that, in the years ahead, the successful interior designers will be those who understand their role as agents of positive cultural change and who exercise their power to help people achieve their full potential by providing them with optimal interior spaces in which to live, work, learn, heal, and grow old. Now this groundbreaking book helps them do exactly that. An inspiring call to action, a heady vision of the future, a guide to business success in the twenty-first century, Interior Design and Beyond is an indispensable resource for the practicing designer and apprentice, as well as the contractors, manufacturers, consultants, and other design professionals who work with them.

"Good interior design is responsible design. It takes into account the needs and realities of the situation and the people who will use the space. This approach to interior design looks to the future rather than waiting for a problem to occur before anyone tries to solve it. It goes beyond prettifying a room or responding to environmental issues raised by the media. If we address real needs with well-researched solutions, then interior design will be indispensable." —Mary V. Knackstedt

In this groundbreaking book, one of the leaders in the world of interior design prepares designers for the demands of tomorrow's marketplace by offering a hard look at the current state of the profession and sharing her expert prescription for success in the 1990s and beyond. Drawing on her more than thirty-five years as a celebrated interior designer and business consultant, she provides readers with:

• Practical solutions to the crucial problems facing the design profession today
• A comprehensive framework for business success in a business-driven globalized marketplace
• A suggestion for restructuring the educational system to begin in college and continue throughout the design career
• Guidelines on such vital issues as business process reengineering, organizational redesign, the use of information technology, client/designer partnerships, teamwork, and much more

Interior Design and Beyond is a guide to business success in the twenty-first century and an indispensable resource for the practicing designer and apprentice, as well as the contractors, manufacturers, consultants, and other design professionals who work with them.

MARY V. KNACKSTEDT, ASID, IFDA, is founder and President of Knackstedt, Inc. An interior designer with more than thirty-five years experience, she has worked on hundreds of design projects. Ms. Knackstedt is also a renowned seminar leader and business consultant who has helped dozens of design firms, both in North America and abroad, improve their business performance. Her other books include Marketing and Selling Design Services and The Interior Design Business Handbook.

LAURA J. HANEY is a writer who helps experts in many fields communicate their ideas better. For more than twenty years, she has helped develop articles and books for and about the home furnishings and design industry.